Second Chances: Indonesian Football Player

Chapter 32's

I felt overwhelmed after perusing the mission tasks that the system had just given me. The physical training routine I do will take about three hours each day. Worse still, it will consume a lot of my stamina and may even worsen the results of my technical football training in the academy. Because something excessive is useless.

However, after thinking about the benefits of the C-level Physical Conditioning Elixir, I immediately clicked on the receive button. What to fear when I have a diet booster from the system?

"DING"

The system notification reads as the mission description disappears and a gift card with an orange image once again appears. I have no hesitation in clicking it. A mini-sized orange emerged from the card, into the physical world as soon as my finger left the transparent blue screen. I without much stale base immediately swallowed it.

* Time Skip *

Thursday, 25 August 2011.

A year has passed, time passed quickly when I was training for my professional football career at the RSCA Youth Academy.

I managed to get a full scholarship from the academy after the match against Zulte Waregem U-19s. I later became a student who received a sports scholarship officially registered in Belgium.

My days usually start with a daily physical fitness workout, which involves gym-work and running exercises, from 6am to 9am. I would then spend five hours at the Brussels International School, going through the upper secondary education classes to maintain my sports scholarship. Fortunately, school days are only on weekdays, from 10am to 3pm, and do not make you tired.

As soon as my class is over, I will practice agility and stamina at the RSCA training ground close to where I live before attending football technical and tactical classes held by coaching staff on the field or in one of the academy auditoriums.

I was usually very tired physically and mentally when I ended my day at 8pm and went back to my apartment to rest at night.

My daily schedule is crowded except for small breaks at lunch and dinner or when I'm sleeping. I have come to realize about how horrible and heavy the task of maintaining a strict daily routine is over a long period of time. I almost failed the mission system during the harsh winter months of December and January.

Due to the cold weather, I lost the motivation and passion to get out of bed and go to the gym or jog in those months. I was able to survive only because of the C-level Physical Conditioning Elixir.

The potion was incredible. With just one dose, I would have enough energy to undergo a system-regulated physical exercise routine each week.

My weekly tasks often involve weight training—mostly with dumbbells, back-and-forth sprints, lateral-band trails, drug ball push-ups, and other routines. Sometimes, when I train with a pair of dumbbells or do fitness exercises, I will feel my muscles strengthen and become more flexible. But most of the time, I feel like I'm just exhausting myself.

However, I did not stop my training. The importance of progressive overload training designed by the system is cumulative—but it is not always clear.I have maintained a strict schedule to complete all system tasks to improve myself as a professional sportsman. His goal was to be one of the best in my age group— by the time I made my debut for Anderlecht.

On this day, I was going through a physical conditioning routine to complete a system mission when Coach Marcel suddenly barged in, surprising all the players in the U-17 who were busy exercising.

"I can't believe that some of you haven't even mastered the Dumbbell bench step exercise – up.” grumbled Coach Marcel. He pulled his beard which had already started to grow bushy in frustration as he walked around the gym, watching some players under the age of 17, exercising with 25kg dumbbells.

“Physical fitness trainers have explained this exercise over and over again over the past year,”. "You should now do it by reflex. But I saw some useless people who couldn't even finish a set of Bench Step-Up !" The coach exclaimed, shaking his head.

"Here's that cranky old man" Stefan Kvensson, who was running on a treadmill near me, muttered. "I wonder what he's doing here right now."

"Ssttt..." Ryandi, who is doing a dumbbell squat and press routine, warns him. "Be careful. He might hear you. If he hears you, what awaits you is expulsion from the academy."

"Stefans. You will face dire consequences once you continue to babble like that." Damon Kvensson, who jumped a rope nearby, stressed. Her long hair was broken like the second skin on her blushing cheeks—and she looked like she had just been caught by a sudden storm. He was covered in sweat from exercising.

Stefan snorted at his brother. "Stop treating me like a kid. I know what I'm doing. He's busy with the other lazy bums and can't hear us."

I didn't stop my exercise routine from listening to the quarrels of my flatmates or the grunts of coaches. I've been used to it for the past year spent with them.

I continued high-intensity interval training on one of the treadmills at the gym. Sweat cooled my skin and brought a deeper shade to my green jersey, but that was how I knew all my workouts would produce something, she said, where I know that I will stay in good shape and be proud of myself as an athlete.

"Ner!" Stefan called as he got off his exercise machine and approached my treadmill. "How much is the running speed and rest interval for the exercise you are doing?"

"I first set the treadmill at 2 mph for 5 minutes to warm up" I replied without stopping my jog in the engine. "I then adjusted it to a top speed at 9 to 10 mph for 70 seconds and then reduced it to 3 to 4 mph for 30 seconds. I had to repeat the same routine 20 times to complete my training today." I answered a little stuttering as I gasped for breath.

"Nero! Didn't you overload your body?" Stefan asked, as his brows furrowed. "You should not run at such top speed for more than 30 seconds. Can you practice at night?"

"Steffin!" Ryandi. "Good God, leave him alone. One day, he ran from the Student Village to Anderlecht in eight minutes. That means he runs roughly 400m per minute. Do you think a simple run on the treadmill would bother him?"

"Damn!" stefan exclaimed "This guy is a monster with such stamina. I just want to know why the coaches didn't pick him for the U-17 game. FIFA won't care if he plays for the academy. He was not part of Anderlecht and was just a student studying in Belgium." whispered Stefan, as he approached Ryandi. "Do you know why?"

"He didn't tell me why!" Ryandi answered while putting down her dumbbells. "I think it has something to do with Anderlecht's official arrangements. I guess they didn't want to expose him to their competitors before he joined the team. I would do the same if I were a coach. I'd hate to lose him to another team before he plays for my team."

"The curse of being too talented" insisted Stefan. "Make me hate the rules of FIFA even more. The man should've been on the first-team bench." He shook his head. "Yandi! Are you done with your physical training today?"

"Yes." Yeah." The short man nodded, taking a bottle of water from his backpack. "We've been here since six o'clock. Three hours is enough for me." He grinned before downing the water.

"Are you not tired of waking up this early? We're only supposed to be here at 8!"

"Geez, I'm just trying to copy the training plan from my role model." Ryandi laughed, patting Stefan on the shoulder. "Although I can't match his insane work rate, I still benefit from following in his footsteps."

"Oh. Wake me up too when you're going to practice next time" Stefan said.

"Me too" Damon also interjected as he joined the group.

"Would you wake up at six in the morning?" Stefan laughed at his brother's request.

"I need to improve my fitness" Damon complained. "Mercx is far ahead. He outperformed me in all the games."

"Then, you're gonna wake up at six?"

"Yes." Yeah." Damon nodded firmly. "Don't look at me like that. I'm serious this time. I'm even going to change into a smaller mattress this week to prevent myself from sleeping too much."

"I'll pray for you." Stefan patted his brother on the back. "I Hope You've achieved your dream."

"Dream of waking up at six," Ryandi chimed in before bursting into laughter. Stefan joined him. The two tried to wake Damon at seven in the morning several times. However, the child will always sleep like logs.

"But Nero is a monster." Damon sighed, ignoring the irony of the two chat boxes. "Where did he get all that stamina?" He exclaimed as he glanced towards the treadmill that was being used by me.